The Seven Ages of Life

SEV-uhn AY-jiz uhv lyf

greek: ἡλικίαι (hēlikiai)

Definition

This is Ptolemy's mapping of the seven planetary spheres onto seven successive stages of a human life. The sequence climbs outward from the earth, the Moon governing the first age and Saturn the last, each planet ruling its stretch for a span tied to its own period. The qualities of each sphere are held to color the matching age — the doctrine treats the planets as time-lords of life's chapters.

In Tradition

Ptolemy lays out the scheme in Tetrabiblos IV.10 as one and the same arrangement for all of human nature, ordered like the planetary orbs. It begins with the first age and the sphere nearest the earth, the Moon, and ends with the final age under the outermost sphere, Saturn. The spans run: Moon, infancy, four years; Mercury, childhood, ten; Venus, adolescence, eight; Sun, young manhood, nineteen; Mars, mature manhood, fifteen; Jupiter, older maturity, twelve; and Saturn, old age, for the remainder. The moisture of infancy answers to the Moon, the quickening of the mind to Mercury, and so on up to the chill and slowness of age under Saturn.

In Practice

Read a life as a relay of planetary stewards. The Moon shapes the moist, formless years of infancy; Mercury the schooling years; Venus the stirrings of adolescence. Then the Sun takes the prime of early adulthood; Mars the strenuous middle years; Jupiter the settled gravity of later maturity; and Saturn the slow, cooling close. Each age takes on the character of its ruling sphere. Use it as a frame for the seasons of a life rather than a precise forecasting tool — a way to ask which planetary temperament a given stretch of years is meant to wear.

Historical Origin

The doctrine is given in Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos IV.10 (trans. J. M. Ashmand, pp. 206-207), where the seven-age, seven-planet mapping is laid out as the foundation of the periodical divisions of time, with each sphere's qualities taking effect in its corresponding age.

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: the (seven) ages or stages of life.

Further Reading

  • Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos
  • Chris Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology